Skift Take
Virgin Atlantic CEO Shai Weiss is confident in his efforts to return the airline to solid financial ground next year.
Virgin Atlantic CEO Shai Weiss looks forward to a good winter. Bookings are strong and leisure travelers, especially those paying top dollar for the seats in the pointy end of the plane, are eager to travel to the airline's many warm-weather destinations.
"All destinations — the Caribbean, we've just launched Dubai, [and] of course the Maldives — all of them are doing well ahead of our plans," Weiss said Tuesday in an interview with Skift in New York. "Leisure demand is strong, [and] the premium cabins have been exceptionally strong."
Weiss was in the U.S. following a sustainable aviation fuel demonstration flight from London to New York. That flight was part of an effort by Virgin Atlantic to push the UK government to enact policies supporting the development and production of the low-carbon fuels.
His comments fit the transatlantic travel narrative that airlines have painted this year. "Record" demand, as many executives have pu